A New Beginning

The next day at Glee Club, I was tapping my fingers against my leg as I waited for Mr. Schue to show up. I knew that my performance was going to be alright, but it made me a tad anxious to know that everyone was going to be watching me. Like Santana.

I swore to God that if she made a single comment during my performance, I was going to replace her toothpaste with shaving cream, her shampoo with hair dye, and soak her bed with water. And any other practical jokes I could think of that would make her pissed.

“You okay?” Finn questioned finally, noticing the furious look on my face. “You look kind of…nervous.”

“I’m not,” I denied as I turned to face him. “I’m just trying to think of ways to get back at Santana if she butchers my performance.”

“She’s not going to,” he tried to reassure, but it didn’t work so well. I cocked an eyebrow at him, which made the slightest of smirks appear on his face. “Okay, well, if she tries, I’ll stop her. Okay?”

That did make me feel a little better. Not much, though, since I knew that Santana was very headstrong and domineering, so she would beat the innocent Finn down with words in a matter of seconds. “Thanks,” I replied, deciding that he could think of himself as a tough guy if he wanted to.

“Alright, guys,” Mr. Schue interrupted all conversation as he walked through the door. “Sydney, you ready for your performance?”

“Yeah,” I agreed, getting up. After grabbing a guitar from the corner of the room, I stood in front of everyone and took a deep breath.

Finn gave me a thumbs-up, and I rolled my eyes before getting started.

I’m so glad you made time to see me.
How’s life?
Tell me, how’s your family?
I haven’t seen them in a while.

You’ve been good, busier than ever.
Small talk, work and the weather.
Your guard is up, and I know why.

Because the last time you saw me
Is still burned in the back of your mind.
You gave me roses, and I left them there to die.

So this is me swallowing my pride
Standing in front of you, saying I’m sorry for that night
And I go back to December all the time.

It turns out freedom ain’t nothing but missing you
Wishing I’d realized what I had when you were mine.
I go back to December, turn around and make it all right
I go back to December all the time.

After I finished with my performance, I cleared my throat and looked around at everyone. Thankfully, Santana hadn’t tried to disturb me, so there was some credit to her sorely lacking personality.

But looking more closely at the rest of the group, I realized that she wasn’t even there. Had she skipped Glee Club because she was so pissed off that I had joined? Not that I was going to get upset if she quit. As I used as my excuse before, the less time spent in Santana’s presence, the better.

“Sydney?” Mr. Schue interrupted my angry thoughts.

I turned to him, my face coloring a little. “Sorry. What?”

“That was really great,” he repeated, still smiling. “You really made it your own.”

“I can’t believe you went from Three Days Grace to Taylor Swift…” some kid in a wheelchair muttered. He had a point, I guess. I just had a really weird taste in music.

I shrugged at him to answer without drawing a bunch of attention to his comment. Then, I went back to my seat, settling in next to Finn.

“Your turn,” I told him tauntingly, extending my arm to point to the front of the room.

While Finn was performing, I felt eyes on me, which was really creepy. Annoyed, I turned to give cut-eye to Puck. That dumb smirk was on his face, and he nodded toward the empty seat next to him, where Santana was supposed to be sitting.

Instead of mouthing something to him, I just turned back to the front to listen to Finn. When he finished, I clapped along with everyone else, grinning. It was a great performance of whatever song it was.

After Glee Club let out, I gathered my stuff and was the last of the kids to leave, along with Finn.

And, I saw after his arm blocked my exit, Puck. Of course.

“What do you want?” I sighed.

“Do you know where Santana is?”

“No, I don’t. Nor do I care. Go find her yourself.” I knocked his arm off the doorway to continue walking so I could catch up with Finn. Clearly, he hadn’t even noticed that I had been held up.

“Wait,” Puck called after me, followed by the sound of rushing footsteps. “So I was thinking that we should begin phase two of our plan next Monday.”

“Okay,” I agreed, shrugging. “Whatever.”

“Cool. So I’ll see you tomorrow in Glee Club?”

“Yeah.”

He nodded in closing before walking down the hallway to football practice. I stared after him for a second, wondering how we had just shared a half-way decent conversation.

After shaking my head to dismiss the whole thing, I made my way to the bleachers outside to watch Finn’s football practice before he could drive me back home.

Well, I planned to watch the football practice, but it was so boring that I eventually caved and took out my book to read.

“Ew. You read?”

I looked up to find Puck looking at me like he had just discovered that I don’t wash my hair for months on end. Which I don’t do, of course. Talk about gross. “Yes, I read. Do you even know how?”

“Funny.” He didn’t sound like he meant it. “I never took you as a nerd.”

I let out a mocking laugh. “There’s a fine line between ‘nerd’ and ‘reading for fun’. It’s not like I’m reading Shakespeare in my spare time.”

“So what are you reading?”

“Why do you care?” He stared at me, not having an answer for that. “I would just show you the cover, but I don’t think you’d understand what it says.”

“Is it in French?”

“What?” His stupidity was actually starting to annoy me.

“You kind of look like the kind of girl that would know French.”

Letting out a snort of laughter, I stood up and pulled my bag up onto my shoulder, book still in my left hand. “Actually, I’m fluent in Spanish. I think I know two words in French.”

“Oh.”

“Ready to go, Sydney?” Finn asked from over Puck’s shoulder, giving him a weird look.

“Thank you,” I mumbled under my breath, directed at Finn for saving me. Finn nodded in response to say that he heard me.

“What the hell were you two talking about…?” Finn trailed off once we were out of Puck’s earshot, a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips.

“I don’t even want to talk about it,” I sighed.